Ghost Signs of Louisville

Chris Stegner's photo gallery, which I just stumbled across online, contains a goodly collection of Louisville "ghost signs". Lovely stuff, although we quibble in principle with his widely inclusive usage of the term - old neon signs do not qualify, nor do contemporary signs like that for Petrus, nor does the insignia on the world's largest baseball bat.

"Girls"

This last remaining sign fragment from an old Louisville burlesque club is strangely tragic on one level, yet comforting on another. I think it qualifies, in spirit anyway, as a Ghost Sign.

Bull Durham Ghost Sign

One of Georgetown's Ghost Signs that hasn't been repainted and touched up: since there are two different Bull Durham Tobacco painted signs superimposed upon one another here, presumably they couldn't decide which one to preserve. I like it just as it is, seeing simultaneous flickers of two different time periods, like the timespace channel-surfing of Star Trek's Guardian of Forever or Douglas Adams' Total Perspective Vortex.

Ghost Signs of Georgetown

Some places cover up and destroy their Ghost Signs in the name of modern seemliness; others just leave 'em alone as a silent tribute to their old-old-school charm.

The folks in Georgetown have taken yet a third tack: they touch them back up with paint, restoring them to their original appearance.


I'm of two minds on the matter. Part of me is very intrigued by the idea, and I enjoyed the feeling of being on a movie set, or in some sort of time warp, walking in downtown Georgetown. But I also cringe slightly at the notion of "improving" the Ghost Signs. The signs probably should, as with any antiques, be left alone in their current state and not monkeyed around with.